Sword Art Online: The White Reaper
by Gelmra
Summary: Chapter One has been posted.
1. Chapter 1

Sword Art Online: The White Reaper .

.  
Prelude:

He began playing video games three years ago - but then came the Sword Art Online beta. Of course, he didn't know about it at first even as a gaming prodigy, but fortunately he was granted a set of nervegear, and a beta-code by a mysterious individual whom addressed himself as Kayaba Akihiko. Initially he didn't know how important the matter was but accepted on the condition that he would play as a Player-Killer who worked alone during the entirety of the Beta. As the beta continued he became known across the internet as Gelmra - The White Reaper via livestream. Several challengers rose to attempt to defeat him and hundreds failed. Massive raids were lead on a single player - who shut them down.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the beta testers - Kayaba changed Gelmra's position from Player Killer to the Eighth Floor boss, whom no single solo player or even massive raid could defeat. Nearing the end of the beta - the single most largest raid was launched into the Labyrinth of the Eight floor. With the floors rearranging and monster spawns scaling with the number of raiders, those who reached the Boss Room itself were presented with quite the suprise - Gelmra The White Reaper himself stood before the players who hesitated to try and kill him. Most thought it unfair but they figured with their superior numbers they would be able to finally kill The White Reaper. Ultimately - the raid of approximately six hundred of players failed and Gelmra was deemed the most powerful player SAO had come to know - until the beta ended and his reputation finally went up in smoke - though it wasn't completely forgotten.

When the beta ended a lot of positive reviews were given, stating that having The White Reaper as the eighth floor boss with unedited stats and level was a big surprise - so Kayaba... in a seemingly generous gesture decided to gift the original White Reaper with nothing more than a copy of Sword Art Online. Unfortunately and unbeknownst to the Player-Killer - Kayaba's seemingly generous offer had a more interesting intent. 


	2. Chapter One: Link Start!

Sword Art Online: The White Reaper .

.  
Chapter One: Sword Art Online November 6th 2022

"Sora, how many times have I told you to eat before -" His mother began with a stern voice - not even realizing that all he did was run straight up the stairs and into his room.

SLAM!

He slammed his door shut, not even giving his mother a chance to finish her sentence. He locked the door and sat down on his bed - he checked the time and smirked. It was almost time to leave this miserable life and world behind. He didn't need to listen to the rest of his mother's words. It's not like she could even begin to comprehend what he felt, or thought. Even if she was a teenager like himself at one point she was a part of last generation and times change. He couldn't hold her responsible for not understanding but she always said she understood, it irked him but she constantly insisted and then blamed his "damned video games" for his behavior. When in reality it's because of her that he gives her attitude.

Anyway, today had just been dreadful - a full day of school, insults, bullying, people trying to befriend him and finally worst of all... he dropped the scoop of his chocolate chip and cookie dough icecream onto the dirty ground of the outside world's sidewalk. That was when he started crying - tears of frustration, not because of how he was rejected by a girl and then insulted by her - but because he wasted so much money on that icecream that he wanted to enjoy so that he didn't have to worry about to boying sorrows of life.

_'What kind of boy asks a girl if she can spare a few moments of her time to help him answer a question with his homework - are you an idiot or something?' She had asked and looked at him with eyes filled with disgust because of how he was different from the common boy - it made him furious and he clenched his teeth._

_'No, but if you honestly have to ask me for confirmation that I'm an idiot - then what makes you think that I would know if I was an idiot, because idiots are supposed to be stupid and unknowledgable right?' He sighed after stating that to her and in his eyes she looked completely flustered. 'Nevermind, don't answer that - it's not like your pathetic mind and train of thought could even begin to make sense of what I just asked - you would just make some sort of retort calling me vulgar names... how disgraceful and elementary.' That's when Sora finished his sentence and received a slap directly to the face, followed by a larger boy appearing out of the loud crowd that had been following her - he could see the tears begin to form in her eyes. Of course she had said such a thing because her 'friends' were around, but she actually held some sort of affection for him._

_Whatever, no time to worry about it - The boy grabbed Sora by the collar._

_'Listen - Kid... if you have a problem-'_

_Sora cut him off before he could say anything. 'Get your disgusting hands off of me, I'd rather not resort to violence or make the effort to defend myself from somebody as overgrown and hideous as you - but if I must.'_

_SLAM!_

_He slammed Sora into the lockers, and grinned menacingly. 'Yeah?! What're you going to do about it?' He taunted Sora visciously, sending some spittle flying onto his cheek._

_'How vulgar.' Sora's expression darkened and with disgust he grabbed the boy by the throat with one of his free hands then as the boy tried to react - he pulled both hands back to try and remove Sora's single hand. Only to find Sora quickly countering with a headbutt to the nose. Blood started to drain from the boy's face who started to bawl his eyes out at the sight of his own blood - he let Sora go and ran down the corridor to the principal's office. 'Of course.' Sora thought bitterly, he wasn't sure if it showed that he was disgusted on his face but without regard for the fight that had just occured - Sora began walking casually in the opposite direction._

_'Sora-senpai... wait... I'm sorry!' The girl called to him and his back, he cared not for pointless apologies or needless insults as she continued to call his name - he had no time for people he considered traitors or those who stabbed him in the back - or even got some massive punk to try and beat him up, how disgusting._

.  
.

Sora Kazuki - or The White Reaper as he had come to be known, sighed deeply with resignation as he lifted up the bulky helmet and stared quietly at the visor, 'Friends are nothing more than individuals you allow to stab you in the back.' He thought bitterly then twisted the helmet around and pulled it over his head. He lay back onto the sheets of his bed once done with his helmet and lets out another sigh as his clock reach 1:00PM - a sigh of relief, at long last. The long-awaited freedom he had been waiting for has arrived and he can play the game - and live a new life. Like he had done in the beta.

He closed his eyes and let out another deep breath in a bid to calm himself down - it worked. "Link start!" He raised his voice as he said the words, just to make sure that he was heard correctly - and how he knew he was, was by his Nervegear letting out a series of quiet beeps. Then his vision was engulfed by blackness, followed by ingame sounds - then the title screen came forth in black font with a white background - Sword Art Online, of course he then had to enter a series of information about his account and then charac.

-  
Do you have an account?

(Yes) - No .  
Username: Gelmra Password: ***********

Language: Japanese .

.  
WELCOME TO SWORD ART ONLINE!

.  
Load Character?

(Yes) - No .

.  
Soraki has been successfully loaded, but due to the beta ending you characters stats have been reset and all items and col have been lost - is this okay?

(Yes) - No .

.  
Do you have any further changed you'd like to make?

(Yes) - No

Change Character Name Former Name: Gelmra

New Name: Soraki Retype New Name: Soraki

Confirm?

(Yes) - No

Welcome back user. You will now spawn in the starting area with the weapon skill-set you chose during the beta.

[Starting City - Floor One]

He had been here before, and even still - all of it felt completely new and rejuvenating. He loved Sword Art Online, and now his friends were with him - to join him and his Player-Killing guild. Of course, the only reason why they PKed was because it was a different experience compared to the monsters and their attack styles on the first eight floors - they were relatively predictable but also somewhat smart. Not that smart though.

BEEP!

Gift from Kayaba Akihiko!

Sora's eyes widened slightly and he quickly opened the message and gift, by quickly pressing the open button on the message notification.

-  
Message Sent: 1:00PM Received: 1:01PM

Subject: Thank you Text: Hello Sora-san, this is Kayaba Akihiko thanking you for the stats and progress given during the beta. It was crucial in the development of Sword Art Online's System which functioned as an upgrade to regular Artificial Intelligence. You will find that monsters at all levels will find ways to counter your attacks with relative ease. One more thing - I have sent you a gift for all that you've done for us... it's the least I could do.

Item Received: [Violent Extract] Legendary S-rank weapon.  
-

Soraki's eyes widened - this was something that he did not expect - why was Kayaba being so generous in gifting him one of the very few legendary weapons? No matter, he would worry about it later... but for now, he glanced left to right, scanning the area as players spawned in from the blue lights that glowed all over the place. It was a lot more than the first time he had been here - way more. Of course there was only one thousand beta-testers and the vast majority of them got on at the same time, but during the day only a select few were on during school hours. Most of the beta testers were students and most of the system updates were during the day.

Then within the Starting City square he saw them. They were standing off to one side with eyes filled with joy and curious wonder. Sora smiled - mostly to himself but one of them turned their head towards him and a big grin formed on the boy's face. He had white hair which glowed with a glorious white lustre, almost as bright as his teeth. His facial features were all relatively different but his hair remained somewhat the same color as in the real world - he only knew because this boy he found was his twin brother. "Sora-chan!" The boy shouted at him with an ecstatic grin on his face and charged towards him. Sora read the boy's username indicated above his head as 'Kazura' - but Sora's cheeks flushed red at the realization that his twin brother had just used his real name in Sword Art Online - now everyone would know... what an idiot.

"What did I tell you about calling me that?" He asked, making no direct confirmation that Sora was infact his real name, not that it was that difficult to figure out, seeing as how he just used his first name and the last two letters of his last name. His brother did the opposite - he used the first four letters of their last name and the last two letter of... Sora's first name, what a jerk - stealing Sora's name.

"Oh, sorry!' Kazura or Kazu just chuckled and playfully stuck out his tongue - his other friends just started laughing as well, but there was a few other boys standing around him which didn't even crack a smile.

"So what do you guys think - should we go hunt?" Soraki asked quickly, trying to change the subject as soon as possible - this whole ordeal was embarassing and new to him... he hated how his brother was outgoing and lacked the same shyness that- 'I'm not shy,' Sora clenched his teeth as he abruptly ended his own train of thought.

"Hold on..." One of Soraki's gaming buddies held a hand out to stop his whole hunting idea, whilst wearing wearing a smirk. "Before any of that, we have to decide who the leader of the guild is going to be."

Soraki sighed deeply and dragged a hand against his face - he hated it when people did this. "We agreed that it would be me."

"I don't remember..." The boy shrugged, his skin was pale and his hair was black - to top off the evil look he had red irises. "Does anyone else remember?" The boy grinned - his username was Shinigami. He must've had a pretty big ego if that was the first name he decided to take - like seriously.

The rest of them also shrugged, they were part of Sora's old guild but now they were obviously getting tired of following orders. An attempt to show who is the most fit to lead through a show of violence? That makes no sense.

"Very well." Sora stated bluntly, "How do you propose we decide?"

"Duels to the death right now, and right here." The red-eyed boy grinned maliciously - Sora was beginning to think that Shinigami was a little too interested with death to be perfectly honest. Nobody grins like that when they're about to kill somebody, not even Sora - and sure he enjoyed player-killing but only because it tested his skills and felt exhilirating to win.

"I suppose I'll oblige you, whose first?" Sora asked and a man stepped forward, his height was around 6'1" and his arms were covered in muscle, he held a massive axe on his shoulder and sent a duel request to Sora.

-  
Duel Request!

Terms (Total Loss Mode)  
Half Loss Mode First Strike Mode .  
Accept?  
(Yes) - No -  
The 60 seconds to prepare for the duel began... and Sora nodded slightly, and he felt his heart rate spike in his chest, like a flutter of fear combined with excitement. He loved it, the feeling never went away even after having fought in so many total loss duels before - but something about this one made him feel like he couldn't lose. "Let's do this!" Sora shouted, and grabbed the handle of his Scythe and violently pulled it off of his back and slammed it into the ground sending bone jarring vibrations throughout it and his entire arm - a blast of wind sent his hair flying out of his eyes and he let out a slight chuckle and he could see a bead of sweat form on the man's forehead and all eyes turned to watch them. Sora smiled when the dust cleared and a [Immortal Object] notification popped up with a beep.

"Y-yeah." The man held his axe in both hands and the duelists both stared at each other. Waiting intently and nervously for the duel to start, this man was obviously going to simply throw the duel so he didn't have to put up with this feeling of anxiety any more - Sora wouldn't let him.

3...  
2...  
1...

A message appeared between both members of the duel.

_  
DUEL Soraki Vs. Ax-San _

Soraki couldn't help but snicker at the name of the man, 'Ax-San? What the hell kind of name is that? What an amateur.' He thought to himself, letting a slightly chuckle escape before sucking in a deep breath.

Ax-san charged, raising his ax above his head and slamming it down on Soraki's shoulder - then he let out a triumphant laugh but it barely had any effect.

"Oh... ouch that really hurt." Soraki stated and burst out into laughter as barely five percent of his health bar disappeared. "Before you decide to challenge me to a duel, how about you actually take the time to figure out the most basic mechanics of the game? You idiot." Soraki's laughter quickly disappated as he realized how much of an insult this man was to gaming. Someone who tries to PK and rush things despite not having the slightest idea of how to use one of the core mechanics of the game made obvious by local news networks and the Sword Art Online Official Website - as well as gaming magazines. 'Such a disgrace,' Soraki thought bitterly.

The man rose his ax once again. This time though, Soraki watched intently before calculating the trajectory of the ax-blade and then how soon it would strike. So he charged a quick sword-skill and slammed the blade of his scythe against the blade of the ax with a loud clash. The Ax suddenly cracked and exploded into a mass of white shards. "Pathetic." Soraki stated, his eyes were filled with hatred direct towards this pathetic excuse for a man and gamer. Soraki chained another sword-skill, holding his Scythe backwards with a spike at the very bottom of the long-hilt point at the man's heart - he lunged into the man's chest and struck directly through but he didn't even have enough time to deal DoT (Damage over Time) - because Ax-San quickly faded to white and exploded into pixel-shards that faded to glow-dust and eventually disappeared. The hit was critical and he died instantly.

He turned an eye to Shinigami who's eye twitched with disgust and fear - it irked Soraki, it felt like something was wrong now that he was getting that look, no matter... Shinigami waited at the sidelines, growing ever more disgusted as the day went on with Sora simply killing each and every last one of his former friends who had now betrayed him for the sake of becoming leader of a guild which did not yet exist. Such disgraceful 'friends' did not deserve to join his killed and after he made sure to kill them all he would disappear from this location, but one thing he found strange was the fact that none of the members he defeated came back... maybe they logged out or were just too ashamed to show their faces because of how they lost so badly. It was probably one or the other, but wouldn't they want to come back and cheer on their friends? Especially the younger ones that looked up to their leader... who appeared to be Shinigami. Perhaps he ordered them to regroup at a secret location so Soraki wouldn't hunt and kill them over and over again... smart but uneccessary, because even despite the title of White Reaper - Sora wasn't that obsessed with the process of player-killing... It was nearing five in the evening by the time that he had killed the entirety of Shinigami's group of friends.

Soraki threw his arms out to the side wearing a smirk, "Looks like you're the last one... Shi." Sora shorted the name from Shinigami down to three letters and he tried to ignore the look on Shi's face.

"Well it looks like this is where you die - Soraki The White Reaper." Shinigami stated whilst glaring at him like he had just commited a crime against humanity.

"You make it sound like you actually believe you can kill me." Soraki stated bluntly - his eyes were cold and devoid of emotion despite how uncomfortable he felt - It was like he was missing something.

-  
Duel Request!

Terms (Total Loss Mode)  
Half Loss Mode First Strike Mode

Accept?  
(Yes) - No -

"Get ready." Soraki stated twirling the massive Scythe around a single hand, the 60 second countdown had started and Shinigami stood with his arms crossed acting calm - but Soraki could see in the boy's eye that he was excited or anxious. Either one was fine... Soraki was an individual who was considered one of the greatest PKers of all time - no pressure on Shinigami.


End file.
